Month: June 2016

Mitochondrial Replacement Hype Goes Nuclear Including by Wellcome Trust

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
BBC-hype-mito-replacement

A new paper from a UK team yesterday showed that mitochondrial replacement therapy faces a serious and difficult safety hurdle fitting with similar findings from an earlier recent study from a different team led by Dieter Egli, but the UK media and some scientists there are engaging in hype, claiming the exact opposite. They are pushing the unscientific …

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New Herbert lab Nature paper reinforces mitochondrial replacement Achilles heel

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
Herbert-mitochondria-Nature-paper

Today a new Nature paper from Dr. Mary Herbert’s group in the UK has found a key problem with mitochondrial replacement therapy that fits with data from others. The goal of preventing mitochondrial disease using various kinds of genome transfer technologies is a noble one, but mitochondrial replacement therapy has faced a number of technological …

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Good stem cell news as Masayo Takahashi IPS Cell Trial to Resume

December 22, 2023 / By / 9 Comments
Masayo-Takahashi

Some good news today as the pioneering induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cell trial led by Dr. Masayo Takahashi will resume. This clinical study with a focus on macular degeneration has been on hold for quite some time due to regulatory changes in Japan. There had also been concerns over mutations in the 2nd patient’s IPS …

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Mesoblast stock on hold: Poll if you expect good or bad news

February 1, 2021 / By
Mesoblast_Ltd

Adult stem cell biotech Mesoblast ($MESO) is in the unusual situation currently of having its stock on hold. This is a relatively rare event and usually portends some kind of major news. The hold is expected to run from June 1 to June 10. Mesoblast will announce ““material corporate developments with respect to certain assets …

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Stroke story stem cell hype analysis: 9 very different headlines

February 1, 2021 / By / 16 Comments
stem-cells-stroke-hype-e1465060807608

I wrote yesterday about two cases of science media hype on CRISPR and on stem cells for strokes. The latter case on stem cell hype stirred the most discussion and even some harsh words in the comments. As this stem cell stroke story on an encouraging but very small, preliminary study has unfolded across the …

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2 Recent Science Hype Awards on CRISPR & Stem Cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 12 Comments
Stem-cell-hype

Science hype deserves negative attention for the harm it does including both to science itself and to patients. I’ve seen two really egregious examples of hype lately in science headlines. First from the Washington Post comes a stem cell story with a very hype-ful title: Stanford researchers ‘stunned’ by stem cell experiment that helped stroke …

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First anti-CRISPR political campaign is born in Europe

February 1, 2021 / By / 2 Comments
Stop-Baby-GM

Campaigns are underway in several European countries against the possible use of genetic modification in humans to make designer babies and one has a distinctly anti-CRISPR tone. For example, in France a group is pushing an anti-GM baby campaign and the same kind of thing is going on in Switzerland, which I blogged about recently. In …

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Ten patient groups oppose REGROW Act that would gut stem cell oversight

February 1, 2021 / By / 9 Comments
michael-j.-fox-foundation

The REGROW Act would drastically weaken FDA regulation of experimental stem cell therapies. I’ve criticized it in numerous posts (see those here) for its radical ideas that would put patients and the stem cell field at risk. I’m not the only one concerned about it as both ARM and ISSCR oppose it too. Now 10 top patient advocacy …

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